At the beginning of the year, short-term plans for a container village in north-west Mecklenburg triggered protests. On Monday it got partly heated in Greifswald.
Greifswald/Pasewalk (dpa/mv) – Hundreds of people demonstrated in Greifswald against a planned container accommodation for 500 refugees. According to the police, around 500 people gathered on Monday evening at the location of the planned accommodation in the Baltic Sea district. In the evening, the meeting of the Ostseeviertel district council took place in a school in the immediate vicinity.
For a short time, Greifswald’s Mayor Stefan Fassbinder (Greens) also took part. When he left the school building, the police said they had to protect him from the demonstrators with a chain of officers. It had briefly become “dangerous” for him, said a police spokesman. According to the police, calls had previously been circulating on the Internet to move to the politician’s house.
Due to the large crowd, access to the meeting had to be limited. There was a crowd at the school gate. At the meeting, Fassbinder said he would also like more time to discuss housing. The plans only became known last week. “The schedule was originally different,” said Fassbinder. But the district put pressure on it.
The district council spoke unanimously against the planned accommodation. “We don’t want the accommodation at this location,” said Chairman Uwe Liedtke (CDU). One wants to help refugees, but the dimensions and the location are wrong. Citizens criticized, among other things, the location in the immediate vicinity of a school.
The Vorpommern-Greifswald district council has meanwhile cleared the way for the plans. A narrow majority of MPs agreed on Monday evening in Pasewalk to an emergency bill from the administration so that the district could set up such accommodation in Greifswald with around 9 million euros. 25 MPs voted in favor, 19 against, 10 MPs abstained. “There is not enough free living space for decentralized solutions,” said District Administrator Michael Sack (CDU). In addition, it was decided by a large majority that the district should not use gyms or sports halls as emergency accommodation for the time being.
Greifswald has not yet taken in the most refugees, Sack said after being heavily criticized for the plan by Left and SPD MPs. In Western Pomerania-Greifswald, the small town of Torgelow has so far taken in the largest number of immigrants. According to Sack, the district must accommodate the refugees that the country assigns to it. He had asked the cities about this and received two offers for land from Greifswald. In Greifswald, the main committee still has to approve the plan on Thursday. Around 200 refugees arrived in the district in the first two months of the year.
According to preliminary information from the police, there were at least 20 people among the demonstrators against the accommodation in Greifswald who could be assigned to the right-wing extremist scene. The meeting was also not registered, but advertised in advance, which is why criminal proceedings were initiated. At least 30 counter-demonstrators protesting against racism also gathered. According to the police, they are investigating an act of resistance against the protective measures for the mayor. In addition, there is said to have been a dangerous physical injury between the two groups of demonstrators after the meetings.
